A TALE TO FREEZE THE BLOOD…( well, just a bit) Emma Carroll

In just under seven weeks Strange Star is published. It’s my first full length novel since last year’s In Darkling Wood ( Xmas novella The Snow Sister came in between) so it was pretty darned exciting to get the very first hot-off-the-press copies this week.

This is my FIFTH published book now (*faints*) yet it still amazes me how a quite random idea can grow and grow until becomes a finished story and then… a book… THAT PEOPLE MIGHT ACTUALLY READ… (*faints again*).

It started back in early 2014 with an idea based on ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley and the story of a local Somerset man Andrew Crosse who experimented with electricity in the early 19th century.

My publisher Faber loved the concept when I pitched it, and bought it alongside what was the beginnings of In Darkling Wood.

The picture below was my very first day of writing Strange Star- word count : six…

First drafts are not my favourite part of writing, but after six months or so, it was done- 58,000 words this time. And with the help of my brilliant editor Alice, it went from a ropey first draft to something more polished, which eventually became proofs, which then got sent back to Faber in a rather scrappy looking parcel, and came back a few months later …

… looking like this!!

I was pretty blown away by how gorgeous the book looked inside and out. No expense spared here- the cover even has SPARKLY RAIN!

To top it all it was named an Editor’s Choice in The Bookseller’s 2016 round up. It was also an Editor’s Pick for July.

It’s now being sent out to all those brilliant people who help make books happen – bloggers, reviewers, booksellers- which is exciting but also pretty scary. Hopefully, not the blood-freezing-kind of scary, but you never know…

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